INDUSTRY AND TRADE
23
In view of Hong Kong's heavy dependence on the export of manu- factured products and the changing circumstances of world trade, its continued economic growth rests to a large degree on the greater sophistication of industry and the widening of its range of products. The gathering momentum in these directions is encouraged and assisted by the Government and a number of autonomous organisa- tions. These include the establishment by the Productivity Council of a Low Cost Automation Centre, which has been heavily utilised since its inception, and the establishment of a Health and Safety Committee to advise the Trade and Industry Advisory Board on means of ensuring that Hong Kong manufactured products are able to meet high standards of safety and hygiene.
Textiles and Clothing
The textile and clothing industry continued to dominate the manu- facturing sector in 1971, accounting for 50 per cent of its domestic exports in terms of value and employing 45 per cent of the manu- facturing labour force. In the spinning section, the 890,798 spindles in operation produced yarn counts ranging from 10's to 60's carded and combed, in single or multiple threads. Production of all counts in 1971 reached 310 million pounds, the greater part of which was consumed by local weavers. Within the weaving section, 25,097 looms produced drills, shirtings, poplins, ginghams and canvas, to be bleached or dyed or printed in the finishing sector. About 775 million square yards of cotton piecegoods were produced in 1971 for export as cloth and for the local garment manufacturing industry.
The use of fibres other than cotton and new processes in the finishing and garment industries have grown in importance. At the end of the year a total of 23 textile mills were producing polyester- cotton and polyester-viscose yarn for weaving into shirting and other fabrics and for the production of knitted fabrics, for which there was a rapid growth in demand. Output in the woollen and worsted spinning sector is largely used as input in the domestic knitting industry. The dyeing, printing and finishing sectors turn out a wide range of multi-colour screen and roller prints, pre-shrunk and permanent-pressed fabrics and polymerised materials with drip-dry characteristics.
The manufacture of garments continued to be the largest sector of the textile industry, employing 115,151 workers in 2,310 factories. A great variety of garments, ranging from cotton singlets, permanent press slacks and shirts to high fashion dresses, are manufactured for